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Japan seems to be receiving most of the popularity these days, what with anime hitting its peak and all. It isn't Japan's fault, unless they were planning the anime boom all along, mind you, but it's a little annoying sometimes about how some kids love you if you're Japanese but don't care much for you if you're Korean.
But, y'know, I'm pretty glad I was born Korean and not Japanese.
It seems as though Japanese people are being pushed to the ends of their patience by thousands of inexperienced anime fans going "OMG ur Jpnese? I LUV J00!" -_- Let that speak for itself.

I was sort of shaken by the fact that when I was younger, and even now, kids ask me (in this exact order, almost every one of them tries each one of these options smile if I'm Japanese/Chinese (they vary on which comes first), whatever they didn't pick the first time, or Filipino. I sort of wait for them to come to the conclusion that I'm Korean, but by that time, they've wandered off.
I told someone I was half Korean a while ago, and they didn't even know a place called Korea existed.
This year, I'm taking a World Geography/History class. I was looking at the Table of Contents. I found that there's an entire chapter devoted to China, and another entire chapter devoted to Japan, but not even so much as a subchapter for either Korea, or both as a whole. confused

Anyone have opinions on this?

At my library, there are a whole bunch of flags on the walls. Sure enough, there's Japan and China, but no flag from either Korea.

Our school, for some strange reason because we're in a really remote location, manages to have online language classes for Spanish, Japanese, German, French, and Latin. Is it just me, or is Japanese sort of the odd one out there? It's because so many kids are wanting to take it now, and anime is one of the major causes, to be sure. I'm taking it because I'm interested in the Japanese language too, plus I can learn Kanji and 엄마 can help me convert them, and a very, very good number of the kids in it could only give the reason that they liked anime for taking the class.

Hmm.... it's true to a certain extent. In my school, where hardly anyone is Korean actually... A LOT of people knows and favors Korea. It's true that the majority of the people in my school are huge fans of Japanese and Chinese music, but they also know Korean artists like "Rain", "Se7en", "Dong Bang Shin Ki", "Hyori Lee", etc. But I'm pretty sure Korea is becoming Known to America (or at least to where I live). A year ago, I never talked about the Korean dramas and singers I liked because I knew nobody would know what/who they are. But recently, I found a friend who is OBSESSED with DBSK! Soon, we talked about DBSK every single day... and we started spreading it to our friends who have to sit and listen to us talk about Korea stuff during lunch... (a few of them eventually were converted to DBSK fans) I think it just started from there. When I went to the library to get on the internet, I saw this girl whose backpack bore a Micky Yoocheon pin! Then when I went to the bathroom, I heard people talking about Se7en and his drama "Goong S"! When I came out from my cubicle, I saw that the two girls talking - one was... probably Chinese and the other was a white girl! The white girl was ranting on about how cute Se7en is! HAHAHAA...... I was in shock and also excited because it seemed like Korea was becoming really popular amongst us.

Also, ever since the Korean exchange students came to visit our school for two months, I think Korean stuff became more known to us. I also noticed how popular the exchange students were. ^-^ When they came, a lot of people went up to say "hi" to them and also asked to take pictures. They were REALLY nice! I even went up to them with my friends and had a short chat with them! =) But since I was so shy.... I only got to know them the day before they had to leave. Yeaaaahhhh..... I could only do things when I'm pressured. I was like, "Oh! I'll just go for it! It'll be a once in a lifetime opportunity..."

But the thing is.... I agree with how I find really little books on Korea in libraries whilst there are a whole bunch for China and Korea. I just went to the library yesterday for Korean books. LOL. I checked out some! Also, I remember learning about Korea from history class. Something about Korea during Civil War... how they were separated into South and North.... one supported by the Soviet Union, the other by China. I never liked history so please correct me if I'm wrong on that.

Ah, last but not least, my school has a Korean club but only a few people are in it (around 8? And my two friends are in it, but not me because I can't join clubs on Mondays). gonk Whereas we have a Chinese club with up to 60ish people in it! I'm not sure if there is a Japanese Club though. And there is only a few Korean classes taught by only one teacher and the classes have really little students. Chinese is taught by six teachers and there's not enough classes that a lot of people who wants to get in got rejected . . .

That's really cool, so I think. I'm one of like...four for this coming school year (a friend of mine's little brother is moving into the High School this year) Asians in the High School...and all three of the others are Filipino. Apart from exchange students, we get a lot of those, usually at least 1 Asian. There's only like...three or four Asian families in my town that I'm aware of, apart from my own family of five blood Asians.